Democracy: The People or The Powerful?
Injecting Democracy Into Plutocracy

James Bailey Brislin
The Carpet City Chronicle

 

Today’s Hartford Courant features a column by Rick Green opposing efforts to amend the state Constitution, headlined, “Injecting Chaos Into Democracy”. In enumerating his opposition, Green constructs a series of straw-man arguments that are easily disproved.

In his column, Green suggests that initiative and referendum will provide undue power to special interests. Taking aim at FIC Executive Director Peter Wolfgang, he writes, “Members kept saying this wasn’t about special interests. So why was the director of the Family Institute of Connecticut (google: Marriage Protection Pledge) up there at the front of the room?”

However, Green fails to mention the unholy trinity of moneyed special-interests present at the previous day’s “Vote No” press conference. The “Vote No” efforts are backed by Planned Parenthood, Love Makes a Family, and the public employee unions. Aren’t these moneyed special interests? If FIC is a special interest, sure the folks opposed to them are special interests too. How can it be that the largest state and municipal contractors— the public employee unions— are not special interests?

Both the folks in favor and against direct initiative have agendas. However, those in favor trust the people to properly decide their issues. Those opposed to initiative and referendum do not trust the people to make the right decisions. If you ask me, the former echoes Jeffersonian principles and the latter smacks of liberal elitism.

Green also faults proponents of Constitutional change for criticizing the elected officials in opposition

However, it should be noted that the elected officials opposing initiative and referendum are all entrenched incumbents. Isn’t that interesting? How many years have Dick Blumenthal, Nancy Wyman, Denise Nappier, and Susan Bysiewicz held power? Perhaps these officials fear ballot initiatives on term limits. After all, they are career politicians who have spent decades accumulating power. Perhaps they fear that initiative and referendum have the potential to take power away from them. Look at where the money for the “No” campaign is coming from… the folks who are writing checks to the “No” campaign are the same folks who finance the campaigns of these elected officials. What a strange coincidence. If you ask me, this is prime evidence that Big Money controls Connecticut politics.

Green raises the specter of California, “But there is a good reason we are a long way from California, where they are bogged down with endless recall votes, referendums and divisive debate about issues the government has no business getting involved with in the first place.”

However, such a statement glosses over some fundamental differences between California and Connecticut. Perhaps the abundance of referenda in California has something to do with its size. It is, after all, the most populous U.S. state. By consequence, it has many more people who will have many more issues, than a small state like Connecticut.

Green quips, “I want our legislators to do the work they were elected to do, which is pass laws and approve a state budget. If I don’t like what they do, I’ll vote against them on Election Day.”

Do the legislators actually do the work they were elected to do?

The record shows that they do not. Surely, the 2008 legislative session will go down in history as the year of the Do-nothing Legislature, run by Do-nothing Democrats. When it came time to vote on a budget, their response was to do nothing. Why? Opening the budget would have forced the democrats into a roll call vote on Republican proposals to cut the gas tax. In turn, this would have forced a discussion of spending cuts, such as a Republican proposal to offer an early retirement incentive plan. As the party of “have your cake and eat it too”, the democrats would have none of this. As a consequence, we face a mounting state budget deficit that now stands at $300 million. That means that the state has blown through $300 million in cash reserves since the beginning of July! How much longer will it take to stop the bleeding and how much more will this budget leave us in the hole?

What major laws made it through the 2008 legislative session? Popular legislation, such as the three-strikes for violent felons law, was bottled up in committee. Even, the governor’s signature proposal— the bill to reform the Department of Transportation— didn’t make it out for a floor vote.

Why do I lack confidence that voting to toss incumbents will have an effect? It is because Connecticut’s legislative districts are ridiculously gerrymandered. The degree to which incumbents are entrenched is no accident.

For example, in Enfield, I-91 is the main division between the 58th and 59th Districts. Anyone familiar with local politics can tell that the boundaries of the 58th are drawn to favor democratic candidates. A more even and balanced map might use Rt. 190 as the main dividing line. Likewise, the boundaries of the 7th Senatorial District stretch all the way from East Granby to Somers, and as far south as Windsor.

The emergence of some notable Republican and Democrat figures — Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, and Barack Obama— has brought a renewed interest in politics and public policy, particularly among young people. This year, I have watched conservative and liberal friends become excited about politics. We should do everything possible to support and encourage this increased interest. In an age when even the most basic legislation cannot seem to make it to the floor, initiative and referendum is needed like never before. These efforts to obtain direct initiative dovetail well with the need to end gridlock, renewed interest in politics, and efforts to increase public participation in the political process.